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‘Big Dog’ Robot

In a statement posted on Google Plus, Chief Executive Larry Page said: “I am excited about Andy Rubin’s next project. His last big bet, Android, started off as a crazy idea that ended up putting a supercomputer in hundreds of millions of pockets. It is still very early days for this, but I can’t wait to see the progress.”

Details about the price and terms of the deal are still unclear, but Google did tell the NYT that existing contracts — including a $10.8 million contract inked earlier this year with the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) — would be honored. According to the Times, Google also says it doesn’t plan to become a military contractor “on its own.”

Boston Dynamics was originally founded in 1992 by a former professor from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It does not sell to the commercial sector – it mostly develops mobile and off-road robots which are funded by DARPA, but it has been known to consult for other companies such as Sony on less “aggressive” projects.